A sneak peek at new agave bar, The Pastry War

Bobby Heugel in the back room of the soon-to-open agave bar, The Pastry War

The opening of The Pastry War, the new agave-centric bar from the Anvil brain trust, is just weeks away . Clumsy Butcher president Bobby Heugel estimates the downtown spot at 310 Main, in the growing superblock that houses a clutch of exciting new watering holes, will welcome its first customers sometime between August 1-6.

They’ll be greeted in the low-ceilinged main bar by a 28-foot long mural painted by Carlos Hernandez, the local artist who did the wonderful Santo beer labels for St. Arnold’s Brewery. It’s a colorful riff on the dynamic calavera (skeleton) drawings of Mexican political satirist José Guadalupe Posada. A back room fitted out with pool tables, cantina style, will be papered with a collage of Mexican newsprint, advertisements and photos.

On the back bar will be folk art pieces collected by Heugel et alia on a recent trip to visit a collector in San Miguel de Allende, plus bottles of the various agave spirits — tequila, mezcal, sotol — that are the establishment’s reason for being.

Frozen house Margaritas at The Pastry War will be served in clay jarritos.

You won’t have to be an agave nerd to feel comfortable at The Pastry War, which is named for a brief and slightly surreal 1838 dustup between France and Mexico. (It started with the looting of a French pastry shop and went downhill from there.) Heugel and Alba Huerta, who will be a partner in the bar, want to make sure the bar works on two levels: one quick and easy and very casual; the other geared for the customer who wants to explore agave spirits in their many guises.

Dropping in for a fast, fun drink with friends? Check the front side of the menu, which offers a raft of Mexican beers (along with that dark-malted St. Arnold Santo), most priced at $4; a handful of tequila cocktail standards; and $7 house Margaritas served either shaken or frozen — the latter served in clay jarritos.

You can choose either tequila or mezcal for your house Margarita, and for a buck more you can get it flavored. There’s a Mole & Ginger version, a Mango Habanero version, and the almost-but-not-entirely inevitable Strawberry Balsamic.

Want to class it up? Twelve bucks buys a Kentucky Club Margarita based on the recipe served by the sacred 1920 Juarez border bar where I cut my Margarita teeth. (John Wayne and other celebrities who made the Kentucky Club pilgrimage helped to make the Margarita famous in this country.) There’s a 110-proof version, a Paloma, a Tequila Sunrise, a Parkeroo (made with Reposado, sherry and bitters) and a Sangria that incorporates agave syrup with the its red wine, ginger beer and fruit.

And just to cement the Pastry War conceit, wine drinkers will find French Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne for $9 a glass.

That’s the party side of the menu. Flip it over to engage your palate and curiosity with the hard-to-find agave spirits Heugel and Huerta have sought out from the best Mexican distillers, most of whom they have visited personally.

Here 50-plus tequilas, mezcals and sotols are listed by varietal, which is to say the specific type of agave plant they come from. So don’t be surprised if words like “Espadin,” “Tobala” and “Tequilana Weber” start creeping into your vocabulary, or if you suddenly start wanting to know if the distillation process occurs in copper, clay or stainless steel.

You can get anything on the list in little half-shot-size clay disks called cupitas, as well as by the shot or in a Margarita ($3 more) or a highball ($2 bucks more).

Mezcal Vago Elote Infused Espadin that will be on the opening lineup of agave spirits at the upcoming Pastry War.

That’s where the serious fun starts. I love the idea of being able to sample any of the dozens of spirits on offer in a simple highball mixed with horchata, guava ginger beer, epazote tonic or — stuff just got real — a house-made tepache beverage, staple of Mexican roadside stands, that’s made from fermented pineapple skins.

More than that, I look forward to ordering a classic Margarita made with any tequila, mezcal or sotol on the list, with a choice of Mexican or French liqueurs as a component. We’re not just talking Cointroy or Grand Marnier, but Xtabentun, Crema de Mezcal or Green Chartreuse, among others. It’s playtime.

If you are taking your spirits neat, you can choose with a traditional house-made sangrita chaser or its lesser-known green cousin, the verdita, made with cilantro, mint, jalapeño and pineapple.

Serious agave buffs, take note: the initial list includes such rarities as Del Maguey’s San Luis del Rio Azul mezcal, distilled out of bootleg tequila agave as a thumb-your-nose political commentary on the part of the producer; and a Vago Elote mezcal that’s infused with corn at the distillery. Heugel talks about that one as if it were a favorite child, marveling over the way the corn flavor meshes with the mescal’s smoky and earthy elements as if it were meant to be there.